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Cards want to 'come together' on trip

Cardiotonic

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As Louisville's basketball team dropped its only ACC tournament game, a double-digit loss to North Carolina, and received a No. 4 seed to last spring's NCAAs, Mangok Mathiang remembers a key meeting that sparked a run to the Elite Eight.

"We all just sat down and said, 'It's now or never,'" the junior big man remembered Wednesday, months after the Cardinals rallied to win their next three games and push Michigan State to the limit.
http://courier-journal.com/featured-newsletter/louisville_sports_headlines/
"Everybody came together and did such a great job. For us, we want to do it as early as we can, because you never know when it could be too late."

Rather than wait until next year's postseason, Mathiang -- now the Cardinals' team captain -- will push for the same sort of transformation next month when U of L travels to Puerto Rico.





A team that lost its top-four scorers but adds key transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis from will play as many as six games from Aug. 10-17. Competition includes national squads from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where Rick Pitino's coaching this summer.

Mathiang said the setup is "like AAU -- back to back games, and everybody, whether you played bad or played good, will have to pick it up and go to the next one."

While the redshirt junior is U of L's designated captain, Mathiang pointed out he's not the only player leading on a team "that really, really wants to win."

Sophomore Chinanu Onuaku, another Cardinals player who spoke Wednesday, echoed Mathiang on what he wants out of the trip.

"That we come together as a team and everybody understands coach's offense," Onuaku said. "Just stay together as a team -- share the ball and listen to coach."



Jonathan Lintner
 
Sounds quite promising. I hope that Mangok and Nanu will be able to build off of their international games experience this past summer.
 
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Of course the real test will come when we go on a losing streak and/or when an opponent kicks the crap out of us. With so many new faces, there's going to be growing pains.

But it is really nice to hear the big fellas showing positive attitudes in the off season, it really is.

Hoping Nanu gets tougher with the ball in his hands and maybe gets a jump hook move down there. If he can do both, he's going to have a nice career here.
 
True Hop. Adversity will provide us a little inside peak of the character this team has (or doesn't have). As giddy as coach is, I think we're going to be pleasantly surprised at how resilient these kids are going to be. They seem to be very coach-able which means they're hungry to learn AND listen. I like that.
 
Sounds like these guys still see this in their nightmares...
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I'm all good with sunshine and rainbows in the offseason. But I can't wait to see these guys get down to business and compete. That's the #1 thing I look for in a player. How do they compete.
 
With the incoming 5th yr Srs and with Mitchell especially joining the existing team, I think we are going to be damn good. The play this summer of Onuaku and Mathiang and the way they are talking and leading have me pumped.

I predict NO DROPOFF from last year. Infact, I think we will be better. Definitely much deeper.
 
We are counted out somewhat nationally. I like that. This team will deal with the natural local pressure of being in a top program in a basketball crazy region, but as far as expectations these guys are really not getting a whole lot of respect. I am pretty sure Pitino will be reminding them of that all year. Could be a driving force for the team.
 
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